Every map app I've used is working from a flawed database. My Tomtom GPS can't find roads in downtown Portland, my old Garmin had bridges in it that were torn down generations ago. Google maps has "intersections" where the roads are separated by 10-30 feet vertically. Can't say anything about Apple, even though some of my best friends use them...

natazha:Google maps has "intersections" where the roads are separated by 10-30 feet vertically. Can't say anything about Apple, even though some of my best friends use them...

One nice thing about Google Maps is if you find an error you can report and they will correct it.* I've done so a number of times and they've corrected the problem (from overpass-underpass "intersections" to bad location mapping) within days or weeks.

They're stretching flat satellite photos over a depth map. Sometimes the two don't line up, other times the depth map isn't sufficient because objects such as bridges don't extend all the way to the ground. Looks weird, but no big deal.

The real problem with Apple Maps isn't the funny images so much as bad street data in some spots and the lack of public transit directions.

natazha:Every map app I've used is working from a flawed database. My Tomtom GPS can't find roads in downtown Portland, my old Garmin had bridges in it that were torn down generations ago. Google maps has "intersections" where the roads are separated by 10-30 feet vertically. Can't say anything about Apple, even though some of my best friends use them...

ArcadianRefugee:natazha: Google maps has "intersections" where the roads are separated by 10-30 feet vertically. Can't say anything about Apple, even though some of my best friends use them...

One nice thing about Google Maps is if you find an error you can report and they will correct it.* I've done so a number of times and they've corrected the problem (from overpass-underpass "intersections" to bad location mapping) within days or weeks.

/through the desktop interface

My parents live a few blocks from an industrial park. Several roads in the neighborhood dead end with the metal guard rail type of blockade. One day Google Maps started giving directions to drive through the guard rail to get to the expressway, or to get to my parents house from the expressway. More than once someone had to go to the industrial park and lead a visitor back to my parents house because their printed maps were wrong. There has also been plenty of commercial traffic trying to get to the park by driving through their neighborhood.

I submitted a bug and to their credit they did correct it. It took like 3 months, but they corrected it and sent me an email to let me know. A few months later it came back, so I sent a correction again... and they fixed it about 2 months later and emailed me back. Then it came back, so I submitted the problem *again* and they emailed me back a few days later stating their partners (associates? I can't recall what they called them) in the area have physically checked the intersection and their map data is correct.

Last time I checked it was still directing people incorrectly.

Google maps also has a road listed going through two of my neighbors back yards and up a thirds side yard that doesn't exist. That road only showed up a few months ago.

Malacon:My parents live a few blocks from an industrial park...[snip]...their map data is correct

That's ... odd. You'd think they could. I dunno, view their own "Street View" view and see that it is not.

I usually point to their street view (or satellite view, where appropriate) to show why I am right in the first place, but I don't think I have ever gone back to check to see if their fix has ever been re-error'ed.

natazha:Every map app I've used is working from a flawed database. My Tomtom GPS can't find roads in downtown Portland, my old Garmin had bridges in it that were torn down generations ago. Google maps has "intersections" where the roads are separated by 10-30 feet vertically. Can't say anything about Apple, even though some of my best friends use them...

I'm not very impressed with OpenStreetMap as a site, but in terms of data, it's often very good.

They built a new estate near me. A couple of days after the roads were officially highways, someone had been round and updated OpenStreetMap including mapping out bridges and cycle paths.

ArcadianRefugee:Malacon: My parents live a few blocks from an industrial park...[snip]...their map data is correct

That's ... odd. You'd think they could. I dunno, view their own "Street View" view and see that it is not.

I usually point to their street view (or satellite view, where appropriate) to show why I am right in the first place, but I don't think I have ever gone back to check to see if their fix has ever been re-error'ed.

I was about to type "they still haven't done my parents neighborhood yet," but decided to check first and was surprised to see that there not only did they hit my parents neighborhood, but so recently I can spot my fathers new car.